Hello hello hello hello!

So it's been a while, no? Apologies. I'm teaching four classes, which is both buckets of fun and a big time drain, and also applying to Ph.D. programs, also a bit of a consuming task, and so yes.

One of my stories is out in the Fall 2004 issue of The Santa Monica Review.

The Spine

I am bothered by the very uneven responses to the latest Giants album. Their stuff made me really care about music, and I've picked up every release b/c every one, so far, has had songs that have made me giddy & happy to have ears, and for all that I'll be the first to admit that the best time to really enjoy a TMBG song is when you're a young and angsty (but not terribly messed up) adolescent. Rock'n'roll w/ all the smarts & all the hooks and none of the posseur nihilism. Happy-sounding songs that are clever and way dark--but clever in their darkness.

In other news: I'm preparing to teach creative writing in the fall and setting up a messy blog to list short stories to include in the reading list. Feel free to contribute any ideas. I'm trying to find stories that are a) not sucky, b) not overly polite (though i am a fan of those introspective-small-domestic-drama-Chekovian-end-w/-a-weather-description stories, but students seem to get many of those, and not enough of other, weirder strains of fiction), c) the other, the weird, the wonderful, the very funny or the very sad or both.

Browse Top Level > Audio > Live Music Archive

Way to Go, OK Go!

On getting rid of Bush, written by rock people of great chops & well worth reading. Hello!

The Future Dictionary of America.

This is not my country, chum. Please, please Take Your Country Back.

With many thanks to the Rabbit.

Mariam's Memoirs are way few right now but hopefully there will be more, soon. Mariam is a wonderful person, a terrific writer, a heck of an environmental engineer student (her thesis director was also my father's), and a fantastic and frequent visitor to the Writing Center. Oh, and she's going to med school.

Out Ridin' Fences

We watched In America the night before last. I already returned the DVD and didn't think to check the director's commentary, but here's the thing: the girl singing "Desperado"--surely that's a nod to the Langley Schools Music Project, no? Jim Sheridan is, I'm sure, enough of a good man (not to mention a hell of a talented director--b/c how can you spend half the movie bawling your eyes out, and even have that hoariest of cliches, the saintly African-American martyred so that someone from a fairer clime may live (see also: The Green Mile, The Talisman, several other Stephen King works whose names escape me--not to mention others from other writers/directors whose names also escape me) and still produce a movie that is emotionally honest, and fun, and just plain good?) to not have done an outright ripoff.

But still. The singing-of-"Desperado"-by-a-small-child scene is in not way distinguishable from the beautiful, ravishing reading of same song in the CD.

Which may explain why said song was removed from the In America soundtrack. So as to give Langley a leg up.

Reading in Cutting Edge about Breton's tendency to jump into and out of theaters at random, to which Hawkins assigns a really neat reading, about the importance of disruption & the danger of passive viewings, though passive viewers, Hawkins does note, were probably really peeved off at someone barging in at odd moments--

--but anyway, it reminded me of a friend, someone I don't see often, who works w/ printers & other heavy hardware and mostly stays out of reach of people & has, as a consequence, grown progressively more intolerant of human annoyances & foibles, to the point where he says he canno--absolutely cannot--go to the movies b/c people are talking w/ each other, or on cell phones, or at the movie screen or being otherwise disruptive & annoying. To which I answered that that was my favorite part of the experience.

w/r/t which, i watched Sam Raimi's Spiderman in the theaters, and the movie was bland & boring & mostly uninteresting. The only saving grace if the experience was a five-year-old girl in the row ahead of us, whose running commentary on the film ("why is he [w. defoe] talking to the mask?" "so when is he [t. maguire] becoming spiderman?") provided the saving grace.

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So yes! I'm teaching two sections of creative writing in the fall, as well as one composition course, and I am of course excited as all get-out. Still waiting for news from another job that pays in buckets and has benefits, but which amazingly does not interfere w/ the other teaching schedule. We'll see what happens.

The end of the semester

Reading a fellow instructor's livejournal and listening to the Met broadcasting Wagner.

So there is this much for not quite knowing what you're doing next semester: You can spend the better part of morning watching La Dolce Vita, working out, coming back home and typing away at one's journal.

Here's the frustration/fun part: It looks as though I'll be teaching, for sure--that much, at least, is taken care of.

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The Trollope article has, if nothing else, increased Trollope's sales by one.

Morning!

So there are massive updates to the Nabokov site, plus an essay on Hobbledehoydom for The Morning News from yours truly, referring to the trials & tribulations of a pre-Becky existence.

The defense went well! All's well in the world of Colombians getting Master of Arts degrees in creative writing at the University of Central Florida.

Hello!

Vanishing by Degrees!

In case you can make it:

Announcing the Final Examination of Mr. Juan Martinez for the degree of Master of Arts in English, Creative Writing


Date: March 24, 2004

Time: 1:00 pm

Room: CNH 306E

Dissertation Title: Minutes from Pragma


Minutes from Pragma is a collection of twelve pieces—a memoir, five short stories, and six short-shorts—exploring ways in which estranged characters may find refuge from chaos and entropy.


These stories attempt to deal with bleakness and despair through playfulness and humor. In "Enterprise Carolina: A Capsule Review," time has stopped, but somehow everyday life goes on as usual. In "Errands," children work in razorblade factories. In "Roadblock," the narrator lives with a relative who repeatedly sets his possessions on fire.


The collection concentrates on hardship and alienation, but suggests ways in which characters may confront and endure hard times. Characters' attempts to connect with others sometimes fail, but the characters themselves persevere—they read, hold hands, even treat one other kindly. In these ways, they fashion temporary shelters from the frustrations and horrors of the world.


Outline of Studies:

Major: Creative Writing


Educational Career:

B.A. 2000, English, University of Central Florida


Committee in Charge:

Ms. Susan Hubbard, English Department

Dr. Ivonne Lamazares, English Department

Ms. Jeanne Leiby, English Department


Approved for distribution by Professor Susan Hubbard, Committee Chair, on March 5, 2004.


The public is welcome to attend.

VN is Ungoogable.

That is all.

Oh, also, hello! Long time no hear. All is well here: I'm typing away at my thesis like a mad thesis monkey. I have used up all my words, and now must resort to other monkeys' words.

Also: goodbye! I am off to run on the treadmill like some kind of small, furry, highly athletic animal.